Project proposal Yalou

Version number 1

Steve's feedback 6 Nov

[title] is a documentary about my grandmother’s life and how her past has influenced her adult life, and how that influence is passed through generations. With the main voice her written piano music.

The documentary contains a variety of archive material: video, audio, photographs, letters/writings, music, jewellery and silverware. And I will combine this archive with new recorded film footage.

I choose this material because it will explain the meaning of passing on through generations, but it will also visualise my grandmother and her world.

My grandmothers music will be used as one of the most important voices in the film, as it connects to her life and it bridges to the present day. Where music is still one of the most important things in the family.

The soundtrack will be the piano music of my grandmother, performed by my brother and me. Not only will it be used as an emotional tool within the film but it will also represent voices and a bridge between then and now.

Feedback by Steve

Things to do> work on this intro. A series of short film pieces

using the family archive with particular attention to my grandmother's music; (which in one piecve will be performed by will performed by members of the family.

My grandmother's presence is alive to this day. The project works with an archive that shows the story of my grandmother; how one generation influences another (in this case passing a world view down the generations), through acts of repetition which are expressed in the piece through repetition in behaviour and through repetition of visual traits).

[It works well to bring the reader back to the field, to situate the reader in your imaginative space. It is great that the text is in the mode of address of a memoir. I like the way it unfolds, but the beggining needs to be tighter.

The proposal is a very practical document so in the first few sentences the reader will get a good idea of what you propose. The current draft is thin on material information at the start, where it is most useful. Please answer these questions

What will you project be? Is it a film? An instillation? (one sentence)

What will it be made of? Found footage? Archive material? (one sentence) If so, what archive material?(one sentence)

Why have you chosen this material? (one sentence)

Will there be a text with the film? What form will this take? (one sentence)

What part does your grandmother's music play in the proposed piece? (one sentence)

What do you want to do with the soundtrack? (one sentence)

Answering these questions at the beginning helps the reader understand what you want to do (I know these elements are covered later in the proposal in some detail, but they need to be at the front). Once we know this your motivation makes sense so the proposal can continue in a more "poetic" fashion:]

Yalou's reaction on the feedback of Steve

After the past week(s) It has become much more clear what direction I want to go into. And I sure agree that the intro needs to be short and clear!

> A series of short film pieces still sounds amazing to me, but I am also interested in the documentary as 1 film. So maybe I will have space and time to do both. The most important aspect of the film is dat there is a clear narrative and that the viewer can connect to this narrative.

> The music of my grandmother is still as important as it was, and I am trying to think of a way how that can be a more clear narrative. And how this element is also visible as the voice of the film.

> The repetition and the generational passing is still a strong element in the work. I do want to specify this more, as I have been thinking about it a lot. In my first text on practice and in many conversations I speak often about her presence now a day. This feeling of her presence is a connection to this generational passing and this repetition but I also feel that it has a lot to do with generational trauma. A new subject in my work, but one that has already been visible for a long time. So the generational trauma connects to this repetition and this passing through generations.

> My project proposal will start with a clear and short introduction, where I will answer the following questions:

What will you project be? Is it a film? An instillation? (one sentence)

What will it be made of? Found footage? Archive material? (one sentence) If so, what archive material?(one sentence)

Why have you chosen this material? (one sentence)

Will there be a text with the film? What form will this take? (one sentence)

What part does your grandmother's music play in the proposed piece? (one sentence)

What do you want to do with the soundtrack? (one sentence)

> After the introduction is clear, I can indeed talk in a more metaphorical way.

The answer to the questions:

What will you project be? Is it a film? An instillation? (one sentence)

What will it be made of? Found footage? Archive material? (one sentence) If so, what archive material?(one sentence)

Why have you chosen this material? (one sentence)

Will there be a text with the film? What form will this take? (one sentence)

What part does your grandmother's music play in the proposed piece? (one sentence)

What do you want to do with the soundtrack? (one sentence)

A documentary about my grandmother’s life and how her past has influenced her adult life, and how that influence is passed through generations. With the main voice her written piano music.

The documentary contains a variety of archive material: video, audio, photographs, letters/writings, music, jewellery and silverware. And I will combine this archive with new recorded film footage.

I choose this material because it will explain the meaning of passing on through generations, but it will also visualise my grandmother and her world.

My grandmothers music will be used as one of the most important voices in the film, as it connects to her life and it bridges to the present day. Where music is still one of the most important things in the family.

The soundtrack will be the piano music of my grandmother, composed by my brother and me. Not only will it be used as an emotional tool within the film but it will also represent voices and a bridge between then and now.

Free writing (prototype)

Start writing a similar piece but more focus on the important elements within the project

We are standing in an empty space, a field.

With in the middle a recognisable box. It is filled with the passed. A selected passed that my mother has told me about. This box once belonged to my grandmother, and she was the keeper of the content. I open the box and I start spreading the content across the field. And I soon discover that this content is my grandmothers archive and my grandmothers life story.

*image of the variety of content*

It started with a lot of images of my grandmother Evà as a young girl, and on the back of the images there was some information about it. I even found an old high school note book. I could not read what was in it, as my grandmother is originally from Hungary. Let me tell you about that.

“Evà was born on the 4th of may in Budapest, Hungary. She was an only child. I was told that the first 4 years of her life were spend in mines because of WW2. But in 1956 she had to flee the country because of the Hungarian revolution together with her mother and father.”

While spreading the content I start to recognise resemblances. It started with physical resemblances.

*images of physical resemblances*

After some time and much more spreading, I began to see a diversity of resemblances. Not only in appearance but also in voice sounds, movements and behaviour.

The box was half empty and the open field was decorated with parts of my grandmother. All of a sudden I see a piano book, with my grandmothers name on it

“Evà”

*image of the piano book*

“She was a piano teacher” a voice says behind me. I jump from scare and turn around. It is my mother who smiles at me and looks a little concerned at the mess that I made.

Before I can say anything my mother starts telling about my grandmother.

“Grandmother Evà has always loved music, from a very young age. It all started when she was a very young child. She wanted to become a dancer. But at the age of 9 she got diagnosed with polio. So even walking became a difficult task for her. Her connection to music has always stayed and I think that becoming a piano teacher was a way to keep on dancing. Not with her legs, but just her hands. I remember her playing almost daily. Music was a part of daily life. And not only for grandmother Evà but also for me and your uncle Finley. We both had to practice an instrument and any mistake would be heard by grandmother Evà. Back then music wasn’t as fun for me as it is now in our family. It was more a must than a want. But even though grandmother Evà passed away. The music never left the family.”

*images of all the musical instruments*

I nodded excited and looked in the distance at our family tree. It was standing at the edge of the open field and the tree was filled with instruments.

*image of the family tree with instruments*

As I opened up the piano book, my mum was starting to walk home (to the family tree). Even though I couldn't really call the hopping and shuffling walking, it was quite difficult not to stand on the archive material.

I turned back to the piano book and started to recognise a lot of repetition. As if she wrote it down for someone else to practice. This was another fascinating finding for me, and I could connect it to the different resemblance that I had already found.

Everything is spread out on the open field.

An I ask myself why this is so interesting to me?

For me it is my grandmothers presence now a day and the life she lived. From being born in Hungary, getting polio at a young age, fleeing to The Netherlands at the age of seventeen and starting a new life there. This story must have grown into a traumatic experience. As her mental state changed later on in life. She became more bitter, sad and frustrated. This is even visible in the archive that she left behind. And that brings me to the next interesting question. Why did she leave this archive behind? Could it be a message from her?

*Images of the angry letters and the cut up pictures*

This all brings me to the now. What of her is here? I see it in my mom and I see it in my uncle. They carry the trauma and they are more similar to Evà than they think. But I also see it in me. And this repetition that is literally visible and literally hearable is about passing on to later generations.

How do we become part of the past?

It is already in us.